The full details of the study pertaining to the experimental AIDS vaccine, which reportedly prevented almost one-third of HIV infections among 16,000 ordinary Thai volunteers, have recently been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Going by the details, it has been revealed that the supposed vaccine is only of modest help and its effects may weaken with time.

The validation of the earlier results showed that the effects of the experimental two-vaccine combination, of Sanofi-Pasteur's ALVAC canary pox/HIV vaccine and VaxGen's AIDSVAX, slowed down after some time.

Results revealed that new HIV infections occurred in 51 of the 8,197 volunteers who had been given the combo vaccine; and in 74 of the 8,198 who received fake shots, thereby amounting to a nearly 31 percent lower risk of infection for the vaccine group.

Meanwhile, in a smaller analysis of only the 12,452 participants who were given all six shots exactly on schedule, 86 new infections were reported - of which 36 were in the vaccine group and 50 in the one that received fake shots.

Nonetheless, the co-leader of the trial, Dr. Jerome Kim - a US Army colonel at Maryland's Walter Reed Army Institute of Research - said that the study essentially "becomes a landmark" for future research.

Kim added: "You can put it on a map and begin to figure out where you go from here."